This invention relates to a method of producing granular cocoa which is easily soluble in water to give a hot or cold cocoa drink.
Cocoa powder is obtained fundamentally through the procedures of crushing and winnowing roasted cocoa beans to give so-called cocoa nibs, grinding the nibs to give a slurry called chocolate liquor or cacao mass, passing this slurry through special filter presses to squeeze out extra fat and pulverizing the resulting filtercake, followed by sifting.
As matters of inconvenience during a final stage of the production procedures, cocoa powder is rather low in fluidity and tends to be suspended in the atmosphere to produce a dust cloud, sometimes threatening to result in a dust explosion. Besides, cocoa powder is not readily soluble in water and hence offers inconveniences to the consumers. To prepare hot cocoa without forming undissolved lumps of cocoa powder, it is necessary to take the steps of first pouring a small quantity of hot water on cocoa powder, followed by thorough kneading to obtain a smooth paste, and then adding a larger quantity of hot water and/or hot milk, with enough stirring to achieve satisfactory dispersion and dissolution of the cocoa powder particles. When cold cocoa drink is wanted, it is necessary to cool hot cocoa prepared through these steps since it is very difficult to well disperse and dissolve cocoa powder in cold water and/or milk.
It is well known and industrially in practice to granulate a fine powder material for the purpose of improving the fluidity of the material, preventing the occurrence of dust cloud or enhancing the dispersing and dissolving property. However, granulation of cocoa powder by any of conventional granulating methods, such as tumbling granulation, extrusion granulation, fluidized bed granulation and the use of a so-called instantizer, which are applicable to various kinds of powder materials has been impracticable because of insufficiency in the dissolving and dispersing property of the resulting cocoa granules. This problem can be solved to a considerable extent by a granulating method wherein cocoa butter and a surfactant are added to and mixed with cacao mass and the paste-like mixture is forced through a wire screen, followed by drying. However, a granular cocoa obtained by this method has a disadvantage that when the granular cocoa is dissolved and dispersed in hot water a large number of glaring oil droplets appear on the surface of the cocoa liquid and give an unpleasant feeling. Besides, this granulating method needs to comprise a tempering procedure and requires skill.